Bioluminescence
by 986Weapons689
Summary: An egg is laid but never to hatch, a dead stallion gallops at a speed nothing can match. The dead are left to face the beast, darkness shall take the one who is loved the least. A child long gone shall be saved, when fear is harnessed by the martyr lying on his/her grave.
1. 1 Where the Heck is My Friend

**_The summary is the prophecy._**

**Warning: the first portion of this chapter is kinda boring ( sadly no you cant get away with skipping it) but don't worry, hopefully it'll just be the trip up in the roller coaster. **

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1. Where the Heck is My Friend?

Moonlight shone on red leaves scattered on the floor as clouds started forming themselves, slowly surrounding the glowing orb as it reached it's highest point. _Midnight,_ I grinned. _Time to work my magic._ I dipped my staff into the lake and watched as the ice slid across it. This was always one of my favorite parts, though I never looked at it the same way after I found out my history with frozen lakes…

Anyway when I was done with that I started carpeting the floor of dead leaves with snow. It felt good to think about all the snowball fights and sleigh rides that would happen tomorrow when everyone would wake up into a nice snow day.

The thought reminded me of Jamie, my first believer and the sled ride I gave him before he believed in me, and to think that that had been 8 years ago. So much has happened since then, it made me smile to think that in all those years he never stopped believing.

I could still talk and play with him though he has changed as he grew up. He didn't have that much time to play anymore and sometimes he talked about stuff I didn't understand or care about much like academics, being something other than friend to a girl and-shudder-jobs.

But despite all that, I could see that Jamie was still a child at heart. He still looked for me during winter and wouldn't hesitate to throw a snowball at me when I was off guard; he was still the same Jamie I first met, only older. I miss him; it's been three years since I last saw the kid. For some reason he was never around his house anymore, I don't know why. I decided to go visit him later; it was exciting to think that he would be my age by now.

By the time I was done I immediately headed to Burgess. It was early morning there, a few minutes before sunrise. I immediately spotted his house and flew to it.

Floating right outside his window I cupped my hands in front of my eyes and pressed them against the glass so that I could see inside. It was dark. Nothing seemed to have changed since my last visit here. "Jamie" I called knocking on the window.

No answer.

Whoops, I forgot, he was probably asleep right now. I decided to just come back later when he's awake. I stood there a little longer staring inside and remembered all the memories we had in there. Like the time I made it snow in his room or when we accidentally woke him up. I laughed at the memory of Bunny getting chased by the greyhound. I left a snowy pattern on his window to show that I had been here.

Just as I had gotten a few feet away the sun rose, _It's probably time for him to get up anyway_ I thought. I looked back into his room and decided to wake him up. I guess I was a little too excited because I ended up slamming onto the window. I detached myself from the glass and knocked on the window "Jamie! Time to get up! Look I made it extra snowy today want to play—"

I stopped when I realized that his bed was empty.

He wasn't there, and judging by how neat the bed was, he was never there. Where could he be? He couldn't have moved to another house, his stuff was still there. Maybe he had slept over somewhere else or had gone for an early walk or something. No wait, Jamie doesn't make his bed or wake up early. He probably went out of town or camped out somewhere or…

I felt my eyes heat up for a moment when I thought of the possibility that he could be…. _No,_ I thought _don't think like that he's probably just somewhere else don't panic._ With that I went away to continue my job or something, anything to get my mind off the empty room.

A couple of minutes (or hours I don't know) later I was sitting on a branch with my hoodie up watching people enjoy their snow day. I was in no mood to join them so I tried to keep hidden in the trees and away from my believers. I could see some of them among the people outside; the same old friends that had helped us defeat Pitch. Over the last couple of years some of the kids had stopped believing but fortunately had passed the belief on to other children. I looked closer at the group of kids, looking for Jamie but sadly he wasn't there.

I sighed, it was a beautiful morning with the ice sparkling and the clean snow piled up in heaps, begging to be scooped up and thrown at someone, if only Jamie were here. Suddenly, I caught sight of one of my believers staring at me from a window. It was Pippa looking like she hadn't slept all night, last time I checked she was one of the remaining teens who still believed in me. She seemed to have been studying when she looked up at me. When she saw me look back at her she immediately went back to work. _Wait_ I thought _maybe she knows where Jamie is._

"Hey Pippa!" I called out, but she didn't look up.

"I know you can hear me!" I said flying into her window. Since she still didn't look up I grabbed the book from her desk

"Hey!" she grabbed it back

"Ha! I knew you could still see me!" I said triumphantly, she sighed in annoyance

"What do you want Jack?"

"Yeah, nice to see you too. Jeez, I was just gonna ask you if you've seen Jamie around."

Her eyes widened for a second but her face was stoic.

"No I haven't, and I have no idea where he went. Look, I'm busy okay? I've got this thing due tomorrow and a test and a project…" she sighed, "I just can't talk to you right now,"

With that she sat back down on her desk and continued reading her book as if I never came. I gave an awkward good-bye and left her room. I decided to go ask Jamie's other friends, maybe _they_ knew.

This wasn't the first time I've asked them about Jamie's whereabouts, when I asked them before the answers were always 'I don't know' or 'maybe _ knows' or just anything else but a straight answer and on the times that they _did_ give a straight answer he was never in the place they say he's in. And when I come back to tell them he wasn't there they'd just shrug and either walk away or change the subject. _Maybe I could ask Sophie instead_. Then I remembered that she didn't believe in me anymore.

Wow, that thought just made my day. I feel so much better thank you brain.

As I continued my trip I felt like someone was staring at me. I looked around and noticed at a distance what looked like a furry, blue-green ball flying towards me. I stopped mid-flight to stare at the strange object. As it drew closer I saw that it wasn't furry. It just moved so fast that it was a blur soon I could see it's pink and blue eyes staring at me. "Baby Tooth!" I said smiling; it felt good to see my little friend again.

She looked really excited as she started telling me that North was inviting us guardians to his workshop. It's really hard to explain how she actually said it but somehow when the little creature tells you something you just _know_ what it's saying.

"Wait, why didn't he just use his northern light thing to contact me?"

_Because it's not urgent he's just asking if you want to see the surprise._

"What surprise?" I asked. _You'll see_ she told me giddily and zipped away. I looked back at Burgess _Jamie probably ended up studying overnight in some place _I thought remembering Pippa's sleepy look_. _I shrugged and decided to go see what Baby Tooth was so excited about.

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**hint: (if you want to be surprised avert your eyes) Jamie's not the child long gone**


	2. I Make a Bet with a Kangaroo

**Thanks for favoriteing and or following this story I might have given up on it if not for you guys. :)**

** WAIT STOP DON'T READ YET before you read this chapter I need to clarify some things case there might be a part that's gonna give you the wrong idea, the only ship I'm featuring here is my OTP No oneX No one (how romantic) this fic's genre does NOT include romance. But if you're a (insert ship here) shipper and you think that that was a (insert ship here) moment then you can imagine that it was, it's not like I can stop you anyway. On with the story now you shall know what the surprise is...**

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2. I Make a Bet with a Kangaroo

The yetis have been working for like eight months and they were still busy making toys. Guess there were more nice kids than I thought. And as usual the elves were doing their own crazy thing, I could have sworn I saw one eat a toy. "Christmas business can get really weird huh?" I whispered to Baby Tooth who nodded in agreement. "Hey Phil," I said as I passed the familiar yeti. He almost dropped the nutcracker he was making at the sight of me. "Don't worry I was invited." I assured him.

Soon we reached the top of the workshop where the globe stood with all the tiny lights; Toothiana and North were already there, murmuring to eachother in Russian. Bunnymund and Sandy didn't seem to be there yet. "Hey!" I greeted making them turned around "So what's the occasion?" I asked looking around for any clues of what it might be. My eyes fell on what Tooth and North had been staring at. "Ah Jack nice of you to come, I just thought you might want to know that we have new guardian." North said with his usual Russian accent. He gestured at the glowing statue I was looking at.

It was that of a teenage girl with braided hair in an aviator jacket and pants that covered half her shin. Her head was looking up to the sky, with hands balled into fists, her arms obliquely downward and her feet slightly apart as if she were ready for anything. The light looked strongest at her eyes.

"So… who is she?" I asked. North looked at me nervously. "Eh… Toothiana will tell you."

"She's the new guardian," she said plainly avoiding my gaze.

"Yeah but who is she exactly?"

North and Tooth exchanged looks; they looked like they were having a staring contest or some sort of telepathic conversation until North spoke up. "We… do not know,"

"Actually I think I've seen her somewhere…"Tooth said looking around thoughtfully as if the answer was on the walls.

_This is just sad_ I thought. _What kind of spirit was so unknown that even the guardians didn't know who she was? _"Is she new or something? I mean she looks mortal to me." I suggested

"Jack, the Man in the Moon doesn't just choose mortals. If he did we would have known and if we didn't, it means that they're de—" she paused, afraid that saying "dead" might offend me

"Spirits" she said.

Suddenly a hole formed on the ground and a gigantic rabbit hopped out

"So, what's going on 'round here? Did that dipstick show his ugly face again?" asked Bunnymund looking around the workshop.

"No my friend, Manny has picked new guardian to join us," North said

Bunny's ears pricked up "Who is it? Is it the leprechaun this time?"

"Well it's, um, her," said Tooth pointing at the glowing figure

"Ah, May Vernal! It's 'bout time we got 'er in the team," said Bunny happily, looking at us expectantly, waiting for our reaction

"Oh don't tell me you don't know May Vernal."  
"I think I do, I just forgot," Tooth said sheepishly, like a student told to answer a question that she had no answer to.

"I just, never really heard of her." I said

"Okay Frostbite here I understand. He was never supposed to know anyway but Tooth? Don't you remember? She was the one who made floral vines grow in your palace when she first visited you. North don't _you_ know her?" asked Bunny, but the man just shook his head sadly.

"She was the one who accidentally destroyed your toys then tried to make new ones because she felt sorry, but you hated her design and just told her that you'd make new ones yourself," he said. North's face lit up.

"Ah! Now I remember! Curious child disassembled all the toys to see what was inside. How could I have forgotten?" North said chuckling to himself

"W-w-w-wait what do you mean I'm not suppose to know her?" I asked

"Well you see May arrived here before you did. When you came in the Man in the Moon told her to steer clear of you, which was fine with 'er. I like that lass, we both hated the same bloke who loved to dump snow on other people's seasons. Remember when I was mad at you about the blizzard? That was nothing compared to her, she looked like she was going to murder you! I was actually worried that she was going to hunt you down and stab your guts out." He said laughing to himself

"She's never met me and she already hates me, wow she sounds like great person," I said sarcastically

"May believes that a person's doing makes them who they are so by her standards she's already met you, seeing that she has to clean up after you every bloody year." Bunny replied

"Wait so who is she exactly?" Tooth asked

"I thought you'd figure that out by now. Tell me, what happens in _May_ and on the _vernal_ equinox?" he asked, waiting for me and Tooth to piece it together.

"She's the spirit of spring! The one who has to melt the snow manually every year, since she lost her staff in a battle none of you have ever acknowledged, so that new things can grow. She's the one who creates the simplest yet most memorable moments for children. And you're telling me you don't know who she is," he said, ashamed of us.

"Well you can't seriously expect us to guess that spring was actually some violent girl with laser beam eyes." I said.

Bunny snorted "From what I see folks picture you as either a blue elf, a snow man or some lunatic nippin' at people's noses. I doubt they'd expect that you were just some annoying kid wavin' a stick around,"

Then North cleared his throat loudly to get our attention "Now we need to bring her in for the oath." "Great! I'll go tell the yetis to get their sack-" I began but Tooth cut me off

"Jack! That's no way to treat a lady," she said

"Oh so your saying that if I were a 'lady' you wouldn't have thrown me into a sack when you 'brought me in'" I said a little annoyed at the feminism

"No if you weren't such a bum-rag we wouldn't 'ave stuffed you in a sack." Bunny said,

"Besides she's too clever and quick for the yetis."

"Pfft! Yeah right she can't even fly. She doesn't even have a staff." I scoffed

"So are you sayin' _you_ can catch her?" I never really saw it that way, but I said:

"Yeah, I bet I could even do it by myself."

"Can't we just talk to her? I mean this is so unnecessary, I'll even volunteer to go," Tooth proposed

"Oh, come on Tooth. We ain't rushin'. Besides, this show pony needs a lesson and May's the perfect person to give it to him." Bunny said

She looked at me as if saying _this is a stupid idea don't do it._

"Yeah it'll be fun I like a challenge, even if it's not a very good one," I replied

North just sighed and tossed me his snow globe "Great! I'll go get a sack."

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**The term 'bum-rag' came from the book Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, in short I don't own it and it's actually suppose to be scottish but I ran out of Australian words okay! And please don't go just because there's an Oc, first impressions are rarely accurate anyway...**


	3. I Get Shoved Into a Sack…Again

3. I Get Shoved Into a Sack…Again

The snow globe took me to what I can only assume was Spring's location. It was a snowy village quite far from any city, seeing that trees surrounded it. But it had modern houses just the same. Only a few people were around because the rest were still asleep since it was still dawn.

Why would a spring spirit be here? I had no idea. I already missed Baby Tooth's company but it was part of the bet, that I could catch her without any help. I looked around for a while. She wasn't among the villagers nor was she in the forest. It seemed like she wasn't even there. _Where could she be?_ I thought, leaning against a tree.

Suddenly I felt it shake and heard a grunt from overhead. Just as I took a step back and looked up to see what it was I found myself face down on the snow. It felt as if a snowdrift had collapsed on me. I gasped as the weight left my back followed by a moan. I looked up to find just the guy I was looking for, she looked more rugged up close, like the forest had puked her out.

Her dark blue pants were tattered with black splotches and 5 inches of it was messily torn off. She wore a worn, brown, leather aviator jacket with patches at the elbows. Her singed, soil brown hair was tied into a short braid with loose strands hanging out. The only sign that she was Spring was a patch on her left shoulder bearing a picture of a sapling and the leaves, feathers and some fur scattered around her head, clothes and sticking out of her braid. It was only now that I realized that she was barefoot and had piloting gloves on. Unlike her statue she had a leather backpack with a chain sticking out of the lower right corner.

In short she looked _nothing_ like the way people would picture spring.

She didn't seem to notice that she had crashed on someone, seeing that she had her back to me. Now was my chance. I gripped my sack with both hands and slowly stood up. But as I did she suddenly turned around, I couldn't tell whether or not she was really looking at me cause she was wearing steam goggles with one-sided glass screwed in at the lenses, hiding her eyes.

"Did I crash on you?" she asked curiously, so she _had_ noticed. How am I supposed to catch her now?

This shocked me into silence for a moment. We stood about the same height so it wasn't hard for her to wave her hand in front of my face and poke my forehead, which strangely made my forehead feel like it was going to melt just like the snow at her feet. Realizing that she could touch me she gasped

"Whoa, sorry about that, you okay?"

"Yeah…" I replied putting the sack behind my back, silently praying that she hadn't seen it yet.

"You're May Vernal right?" I asked just to make sure that this was the right person  
"The one and only, wait, how did you know that?" she asked

"Why wouldn't I? You're the one who brings spring! Of course I know you. Am I the only one?"

"Well no there's this one other girl…" her face fell

"Never mind. Whoa, it's so rare that someone knows my name or much less see me."

Despite her smile she looked doubtful as if inside she could sense that I wasn't really mortal but I could see that she wanted so much to believe that I was to the point that she refused to think otherwise, which made me feel worse about lying to her.

" How 'bout you, what's your name?"  
"Jack Frrr- Ferdinand, Jack Ferdinand," I stammered

She smiled and awkwardly shook my hand her touch giving me that melting feeling again.

"It's really nice to see a believer come around, so how do you know me anyway?"  
"I always thought that someone brought spring."  
"And you just suddenly thought that that person would be named May Vernal?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Ummmm yeah," I said, trying to play along. I decided to change the subject so that she'd stop being suspicious. Why did I have to be so bad at lying? Oh yeah cause I'm three centuries out of practice.  
"By the way what's up with the steam goggles? Is it because your eyes glow? I never imagined spring wearing them or hanging around this place during winter." I gushed, desperately changing the subject. She gave an amused laugh.

"What? My eyes don't glow, what made you think that? These are just kinda like my glasses (long story) I just don't want them falling off so I made them goggles. Besides I'm not spring (another long story) I just bring it. And being here was an accident, as you can see, I _did _fall from a tree," she answered.

She looked at war with herself, deciding whether or not I was an enemy, assuming that I was would mean scaring away, who she believed to be, her only believer.

" How about you? Why is your hair white? And why are you barefoot, isn't it cold?"

"I…uh… dyed it and, hey you're barefoot too." I stammered

"That's because I want and I can cause nothing can really hurt me, you on the other hand could lose your feet if you don't put shoes on anytime soon. Why would you do that anyway?"

"It…was a dare from my friend," suddenly an idea clicked together in my head

"which reminds me, we made this bet can you help me with it?"

She seemed to relax a little "Wouldn't you want to get back at you friend instead?" she said a sly grin cutting across her face.

"Sure, hey I've got an idea. You see that thing over there?" I pointed behind her, making her switch her attention away from me

"What?" she asked, still looking back.

"Well…" Quickly I brought the sack down over her head.

Unfortunately she had dodged it. She looked at me with shock and anger, but mostly anger, she looked like she wanted to throw me into a pit full of sharp rocks.

"I knew it," she grumbled to herself

I thought that she was going to start a fight so I immediately picked up my staff only to see that she had already ran a great distance away.

Well Bunny did warn me that she was quick.

I started flying after her but she was still too fast. I iced the snow at her feet causing her to slide forward as I froze the rest of the path. But even as she slid forward she was still on her feet struggling to regain her balance.

Then out of the blue she slid to a halt in the middle of a frozen lake. I watched with horror as the ice started cracking at her feet. Panic began to rise in my chest.

"Hold on!" I yelled heading towards her. But I guess she was really intent on getting away from me so she did the unexpected. She lay flat on her belly and used her arms to push herself back to shore then started running the second she got on land.

I was frozen with awe at her actions; unable to process what just happened. _Why didn't I think of that 308 years ago? _I shook myself out of my trance and started chasing her again, dragging my staff across the lake to seal the cracks. May seemed to slow down as she got farther and farther away until she stopped, her hands on her knees, she must've gotten tired from all the running. I finally got close enough and dove at her, sack at the ready.

_Wait, spirits don't get tired._

Then just when the sack got too close to her head she turned around and yanked it from my hand so forcefully that it sent me tumbling in the snow and before I knew it _I_ was in the sack. Guess I forgot that Bunny had also said that she was clever, she hadn't really been running away she was just waiting for the right moment to strike. I could feel her shaking the sack saying,

"You're some kind of fearling aren't you? Who sent you?" then I felt myself being lifted into the air.

Were we _flying_?

"It was Pitch wasn't it? Why were you sent here?" she demanded, still shaking the sack. All this shaking made me want to vomit, if I could anyway.

"Fortunately for you it's hours 'til the next sunrise on this side of the world so we'll have to travel farther east before you're taken care of. So you've got a couple of minutes left before your fearling days are over." Sadly for her whatever she said fell on deaf ears, my mind was too scrambled to process what she was saying.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, she dropped me.

Actually it seemed more like the sack had slipped from her hand. I gripped my staff and flew out of the bag, holding its edge with the other hand. I saw that she had bronze wings with overlapping feathers sprouting out of her sides.

_So she_ can _fly,_ I thought, on instinct I froze them, she yelped in surprise as she started to hurtle towards the earth, the weight of her frozen wings dragging her down. I couldn't just let her fall so I did the only thing I was willing to do: I let her land in the sack. She was yelling curses and kicking wildly, which made her really hard to carry. I struggled with her weight "Stop squirming!" I said. The moment I regained my balance (I didn't want to start my victorious moment face planting the floor) I quickly threw the snow globe and yelled "To North's workshop!" then flew as fast as I could towards the portal.

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**She tried. Anyway hope you guys liked her. The goggles/glasses thing will be explained later on and when she said that she'll have him taken care of she didn't mean kill him, cause I'm still with the idea that spring is about life and shiz. By the way I got the name "Ferdinand" and the idea of describing your mind as 'scrambled' from the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld (sorry I just love making Leviathan references). 'til next time my fellow fanatics.**


	4. the title doesn't fit here

3. I Get Shoved Into a Sack…Again

The snow globe took me to what I can only assume was Spring's location. It was a snowy village quite far from any city, seeing that trees surrounded it. But it had modern houses just the same. Only a few people were around because the rest were still asleep since it was still dawn.

Why would a spring spirit be here? I had no idea. I already missed Baby Tooth's company but it was part of the bet, that I could catch her without any help. I looked around for a while. She wasn't among the villagers nor was she in the forest. It seemed like she wasn't even there. _Where could she be?_ I thought, leaning against a tree.

Suddenly I felt it shake and heard a grunt from overhead. Just as I took a step back and looked up to see what it was I found myself face down on the snow. It felt as if a snowdrift had collapsed on me. I gasped as the weight left my back followed by a moan. I looked up to find just the guy I was looking for, she looked more rugged up close, like the forest had puked her out.

Her dark blue pants were tattered with black splotches and 5 inches of it was messily torn off. She wore a worn, brown, leather aviator jacket with patches at the elbows. Her singed, soil brown hair was tied into a short braid with loose strands hanging out. The only sign that she was Spring was a patch on her left shoulder bearing a picture of a sapling and the leaves, feathers and some fur scattered around her head, clothes and sticking out of her braid. It was only now that I realized that she was barefoot and had piloting gloves on. Unlike her statue she had a leather backpack with a chain sticking out of the lower right corner.

In short she looked _nothing_ like the way people would picture spring.

She didn't seem to notice that she had crashed on someone, seeing that she had her back to me. Now was my chance. I gripped my sack with both hands and slowly stood up. But as I did she suddenly turned around, I couldn't tell whether or not she was really looking at me cause she was wearing steam goggles with one-sided glass screwed in at the lenses, hiding her eyes.

"Did I crash on you?" she asked curiously, so she _had_ noticed. How am I supposed to catch her now?

This shocked me into silence for a moment. We stood about the same height so it wasn't hard for her to wave her hand in front of my face and poke my forehead, which strangely made my forehead feel like it was going to melt just like the snow at her feet. Realizing that she could touch me she gasped

"Whoa, sorry about that, you okay?"

"Yeah…" I replied putting the sack behind my back, silently praying that she hadn't seen it yet.

"You're May Vernal right?" I asked just to make sure that this was the right person  
"The one and only, wait, how did you know that?" she asked

"Why wouldn't I? You're the one who brings spring! Of course I know you. Am I the only one?"

"Well no there's this one other girl…" her face fell

"Never mind. Whoa, it's so rare that someone knows my name or much less see me."

Despite her smile she looked doubtful as if inside she could sense that I wasn't really mortal but I could see that she wanted so much to believe that I was to the point that she refused to think otherwise, which made me feel worse about lying to her.

" How 'bout you, what's your name?"  
"Jack Frrr- Ferdinand, Jack Ferdinand," I stammered

She smiled and awkwardly shook my hand her touch giving me that melting feeling again.

"It's really nice to see a believer come around, so how do you know me anyway?"  
"I always thought that someone brought spring."  
"And you just suddenly thought that that person would be named May Vernal?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"Ummmm yeah," I said, trying to play along. I decided to change the subject so that she'd stop being suspicious. Why did I have to be so bad at lying? Oh yeah cause I'm three centuries out of practice.  
"By the way what's up with the steam goggles? Is it because your eyes glow? I never imagined spring wearing them or hanging around this place during winter." I gushed, desperately changing the subject. She gave an amused laugh.

"What? My eyes don't glow, what made you think that? These are just kinda like my glasses (long story) I just don't want them falling off so I made them goggles. Besides I'm not spring (another long story) I just bring it. And being here was an accident, as you can see, I _did _fall from a tree," she answered.

She looked at war with herself, deciding whether or not I was an enemy, assuming that I was would mean scaring away, who she believed to be, her only believer.

" How about you? Why is your hair white? And why are you barefoot, isn't it cold?"

"I…uh… dyed it and, hey you're barefoot too." I stammered

"That's because I want and I can cause nothing can really hurt me, you on the other hand could lose your feet if you don't put shoes on anytime soon. Why would you do that anyway?"

"It…was a dare from my friend," suddenly an idea clicked together in my head

"which reminds me, we made this bet can you help me with it?"

She seemed to relax a little "Wouldn't you want to get back at you friend instead?" she said a sly grin cutting across her face.

"Sure, hey I've got an idea. You see that thing over there?" I pointed behind her, making her switch her attention away from me

"What?" she asked, still looking back.

"Well…" Quickly I brought the sack down over her head.

Unfortunately she had dodged it. She looked at me with shock and anger, but mostly anger, she looked like she wanted to throw me into a pit full of sharp rocks.

"I knew it," she grumbled to herself

I thought that she was going to start a fight so I immediately picked up my staff only to see that she had already ran a great distance away.

Well Bunny did warn me that she was quick.

I started flying after her but she was still too fast. I iced the snow at her feet causing her to slide forward as I froze the rest of the path. But even as she slid forward she was still on her feet struggling to regain her balance.

Then out of the blue she slid to a halt in the middle of a frozen lake. I watched with horror as the ice started cracking at her feet. Panic began to rise in my chest.

"Hold on!" I yelled heading towards her. But I guess she was really intent on getting away from me so she did the unexpected. She lay flat on her belly and used her arms to push herself back to shore then started running the second she got on land.

I was frozen with awe at her actions; unable to process what just happened. _Why didn't I think of that 308 years ago? _I shook myself out of my trance and started chasing her again, dragging my staff across the lake to seal the cracks. May seemed to slow down as she got farther and farther away until she stopped, her hands on her knees, she must've gotten tired from all the running. I finally got close enough and dove at her, sack at the ready.

_Wait, spirits don't get tired._

Then just when the sack got too close to her head she turned around and yanked it from my hand so forcefully that it sent me tumbling in the snow and before I knew it _I_ was in the sack. Guess I forgot that Bunny had also said that she was clever, she hadn't really been running away she was just waiting for the right moment to strike. I could feel her shaking the sack saying,

"You're some kind of fearling aren't you? Who sent you?" then I felt myself being lifted into the air.

Were we _flying_?

"It was Pitch wasn't it? Why were you sent here?" she demanded, still shaking the sack. All this shaking made me want to vomit, if I could anyway.

"Fortunately for you it's hours 'til the next sunrise on this side of the world so we'll have to travel farther east before you're taken care of. So you've got a couple of minutes left before your fearling days are over." Sadly for her whatever she said fell on deaf ears, my mind was too scrambled to process what she was saying.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, she dropped me.

Actually it seemed more like the sack had slipped from her hand. I gripped my staff and flew out of the bag, holding its edge with the other hand. I saw that she had bronze wings with overlapping feathers sprouting out of her sides.

_So she_ can _fly,_ I thought, on instinct I froze them, she yelped in surprise as she started to hurtle towards the earth, the weight of her frozen wings dragging her down. I couldn't just let her fall so I did the only thing I was willing to do: I let her land in the sack. She was yelling curses and kicking wildly, which made her really hard to carry. I struggled with her weight "Stop squirming!" I said. The moment I regained my balance (I didn't want to start my victorious moment face planting the floor) I quickly threw the snow globe and yelled "To North's workshop!" then flew as fast as I could towards the portal.

* * *

**She tried. Anyway hope you guys liked her. The goggles/glasses thing will be explained later on and when she said that she'll have him taken care of she didn't mean kill him, cause I'm still with the idea that spring is about life and shiz. By the way I got the name "Ferdinand" and the idea of describing your mind as 'scrambled' from the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld (sorry I just love making Leviathan references). 'til next time my fellow fanatics.**


	5. Sandy and Jamie are revealed (kinda)

**Thanks for reviewing again Shadow cyclone. And definetely-not-a-crazy-person thanks for reviewing and inspiring me to get off my lazy bum and continue this (p.s. if I blurt anything random or inappropriately funny I blame you and your crack fic). Enjoy :)**

* * *

5. We find out where Jamie and Sandy are. Well, sort of.

"Wait up Toothy!" North said running after her. The rest of us followed because if this was the Pitch Black then we weren't going to waste a second to go after him. Everyone's face was full of worry and hate except for May, to my surprise she showed something stronger than hate. Leaving me to wonder what Pitch could have done to her. I myself felt a burning hate for the boogeyman he had wanted to kill me, the guardians and even the _children_.

Then a thought hit me what if he had kidnapped Jamie? Was he the reason why he disappeared? At that thought all the small amount of pity I had had for Pitch disappeared. _If he took Jamie, if he hurt him anyway at all I would-_

"Ow!" My head had hit the top of the doorframe leading to the sleigh room, destroying my upcoming train of violent thoughts.

The room had some elves and yetis just like before only this time they didn't seem to be expecting us. The gate to the reindeer was closed and no one was manning it. Before North could even say a word May gave two sharp whistles and the reindeer burst out the doors. Okay this girl is starting to scare me how did the reindeer even manage to push the door open? We all hopped onto the sleigh, except Bunny who began stomping his foot making a hole without waiting for permission.

"Bunny your tunnels can't reach a palace hovering a thousand feet off the ground. And if they could, you can't pop up in the middle of a palace that's under attack!" May reasoned.

Seeing the frightened look on his face she groaned

"For confectionary's sake Bunny! Get on the bloody sleigh the longer you stand there shivering like a hatchling the sooner Pitch destroys the castle!" she snapped at him

"All right all right! Calm down sheila I'm getting on," Bunny said trying to hide his fear.

"Aww don't be scared Bunny we'll catch you if you fall." I smirked. He scowled at me.

"Shut up Frost or you'll be the one that'll need catching!"

"Tama nanga! Enough fighting we have to go _now_," Tooth ordered

Without waiting for us to shut up North started up the sleigh.

"Hya!" He yelled, snapping the rains and we were off zipping through the tunnel. The wind blew at our faces and the cold engulfed us.

The ride seemed to lift everyone's spirits, except Bunnymund who looked like he was gonna puke then and there. For a moment all the worry from Tooth's face seemed to disappear and even made her smile a bit. May's anger disappeared and her face relaxed back to its usual crocodile grin. I was standing up for awhile enjoying the feeling of the wind but sat down when an icicle nearly skewered off my head. Soon we were galloping off in the fading daylight.

As we were gaining speed I heard a "Whoa!". I turned around to find that May had been blown off her seat. She was hanging on to the sleigh's tail with only the tips of her fingers,_ grinning like a maniac. _She laughed at seeing the shock in our faces then pulled on the chain at the corner of her backpack making her wings fold back into the sides of her bag. She fell out of sight for a second before she hauled herself back on and slipped into her seat.

This guy could really give someone a heart attack with all the crazy stuff she does out of nowhere. Tooth followed her example and folded her own wings to avoid getting blown off. It made Bunny look even more airsick. I got on my feet again when I saw North dig into his coat for a snow globe.

North threw the sphere the second he got his hands on it and flew us straight through the portal to a view that I was _not_ expecting.

When they said that the palace was under attack I expected fairies flying everywhere and nightmares running off with their stolen goods like last time. But instead the sky was silent, not a soul was seen or heard, there were no signs of battle and it wasn't even dark. The palace itself looked undisturbed. What if we were too late? I gripped my staff, I just knew that any time now he was going to pop out of nowhere and send his nightmares on us. But there was no sign of him, he might be hiding in the clouds but I looked around and saw that the skies were clear. Which meant that the only place he could be in was the palace.

Soon we were in the castle and Toothiana immediately zipped off inspecting the whole perimeter as we climbed off the sleigh.

"This is weird, none of the teeth are missing but where are my fairies? Why would Pitch kidnap them and leave the teeth behind?"

"Maybe they're decoys?" May suggested

Tooth took one of the boxes then ran her fingers over it. After spacing out for a minute she said,

"No these are the actual teeth. Why would he want my fairies instead of the teeth?"

"He is still after your teeth," North said suddenly looking decades younger "he is still here hiding. It means that we must have arrived just when he was stealing them."

"Bravo North," Tooth said. But, no, it couldn't be her; the voice came from the other side of the palace plus Tooth didn't have a (slight) British accent.

"Thinking like a thief to catch a thief, guess all those years of crime has finally payed off." Suddenly another Toothiana came out of the shadows with a smile that was not Tooth's. "Just a little correction though, I have already stolen them." It started to turn darker and morphed into a man.

"_Pitch_," Tooth growled

"Hello Toothiana, I see you brought your friends along how nice of you to visit me in my new palace." he said in his own mocking voice.

"Get out!" She screamed flying full speed towards him. He conjured a nightmare trying to scare her away but she simply shred it to smoke with her wings (poor horse didn't even get the chance to neigh) only to find that Pitch had disappeared.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk oh Toothiana always in a rush I thought you wanted to know where your fairies were."

"Shut up and answer her question!" May yelled, which was pretty brave of her seeing that she only had her fists to defend herself with.

"Ah, a new member in your little club. Why, it's the famous May Vernal! Tell me how long did it take them to realize who you were?" he said

"Long enough for us to let her help us throw you back to your bloody hole!" Bunny spat back. He threw a boomerang at Pitch but he simply dissolved into smoke. _No not smoke, nightmare sand._

_ But he couldn't do that before how could he do that now?_

He reappeared at the other side of the palace closer to North.

"Don't be so confident Aster, your overconfidence could be your downfall."

"What do you even want Pitch, to be believed in again?" I said with false sympathy

"My dear foolish child, it is so much more than that now," he replied in an ominous voice

"I want to do what you have done to me, I want to destroy everything you stand for the same way you destroyed everything _I _stood for. But why stop there? I am already one step ahead, someone else has already destroyed the one thing you love so much."

As he said this I noticed how his eyes seemed to hold an evil that wasn't there before, an evil that was so dark and inhuman that I had never thought I'd see it even in Pitch. And destroy something I love? What was he talking about? He smiled as he saw my confused expression.

"Is that all you want to know? Because none of you seem to know the whereabouts of the fat, little man." He said grinning like a snake, I could feel anger and worry rising in my chest where _was_ he? I knew Sandman he wouldn't miss a battle like this. _Oh no_…

"What have you done with him?!" North bellowed, Pitch just cackled and disappeared again.

It was really annoying how we all seemed frozen in our stances, knowing that trying to attack Pitch would be like trying to punch the wind. But our luck returned when Pitch made the mistake of reappearing a little too close to Toothiana. As he prepared to say something she flew towards him at the speed of a hummingbird and grabbed his throat with both hands, choking him.

"Where. Are. My. Fairies" she growled, her hands closing around his neck tighter with every word.

Pitch just smiled evilly and looked at the shadow he had come from.

We all looked at that direction and my eyes widened

_It wasn't a shadow._

Imagine getting an injection; now imagine getting shot thousands of times simultaneously all over your body. That was pretty much how it felt to be swarmed by a mass of possessed fairies with extremely sharp noses. They had been what we thought was a shadow. They poked me, cut me with their wings and even bit me. Even if it didn't really harm me it still hurt.

I couldn't see anything in the thick cloud of these dark, winged creatures; their screams flooded my mind keeping me from thinking straight or hearing anything else above the noise. I was firing everywhere I could and tried to fly away but they were too many. Summoning the wind didn't do me a lot of good because they'd just come back as quick as they had been blown away.

It felt terrible though having to harm my friends; they were still the same fairies that had seemed so innocent and happy but somehow Pitch had gotten them, forcing us to fight eachother.

He even managed to get us to hurt eachother by _accident._

I felt Bunnymund's boomerang hit the back of my neck and narrowly avoided getting beheaded by North's swords, I could have sworn that May punched me again but she was no where in sight.

On the bright side I caught a glimpse of Pitch looking choked up in Toothiana's tight grasp as she violently shook him screaming at him what I could only guess was somewhere near the lines of 'Give me back my fairies you little poop!' It was pretty unlike her to be this wild but I guess her violent mother instincts had kicked in. Sadly he managed to disappear again leaving her to get consumed by her own fairies. How on earth were we going to get out of this swarm?

Suddenly I felt someone grab my hood and throw me against something hard. I tried to open my eyes but most of the fairies were still in the way. I had just summoned the wind to blow them away when something furry got thrown onto me, completely blocking my view. As I was about to push _that_ away something crushed my arm. And I heard an "Oomph!" beside me. Soon I could feel the warmth of daylight again.

The furry thing turned out to be Bunnymund, his back against me. I tried to push him away with my other arm, which was holding my staff, but he jumped just as I accidentally poked him with my staff causing frost to form on his fur. I gasped for air then freed my other arm, which had been crushed by North. May was on the front seat snapping the reins and making clicking sounds that apparently made the deer go faster.

"Where's Tooth?" I asked looking behind us but Tooth was nowhere in sight.

I looked around frantically then felt a tap on my shoulder

"I'm over here," she said. Turns out she was sitting right next to me the whole time. Well, that was embarrassing.

"North! The snow globe!" May yelled. North started searching his coat for one. But then out of nowhere something dark lashed out at May and she was gone.

"May!" Bunny screamed. The dark whip came back and he was gone too. I stood up to see what was happening but as soon as I did something wrapped around my waist and pulled me up into the sky so fast it was almost a blur, all I could see the sleigh getting further beneath me.

Tooth seemed to have been taken too; North was now on the reins desperately trying to gallop to us as fast as he could. Some sort of darkness had wrapped around me like a rope I looked up to see that it was connected to a cloud made of nightmare sand. I could feel the dark thing begin to coil tighter around me.

Gripping my staff I fired at the cloud above me with all my strength. Blue light lit the bottom of the cloud for a second but it disappeared just as fast as it had come. _Great _I thought, I forgot that Pitch had learned to block my power. I tried pulling the rope off me but my hand just passed through it like sand. I sighed feeling pathetic and helpless. All I could do was kick and try to squirm out of it like a child who didn't want a bath, which of course did nothing. Just thenI caught sight of May a couple of feet above me getting wrapped in the same dark plasma, her hands were digging in her backpack and she managed to pull out something silver.

_What is she…?_ Then in one swift motion she slid it across her now bare hand leaving a golden slit on her palm. Quickly she pressed it against the darkness wrapped around her and quick as lightning, golden sand spread around the black plasma holding her then up to the cloud and even to my rope.

And for a split second the dark cloud looked so much like Sandman's island that I half expected to see him standing in the middle of it. But then it burst apart. Gold sand began to fall onto the earth like snowflakes along with the rest of us but we didn't fall as gracefully. Lucky for me I could fly and was able to stop myself from turning into a flapjack on the earth. But Bunny and May weren't so lucky, I could see Bunnymund in shock his eyes so wide they looked like they were going to pop out fo his head while May fell like a rock, she didn't scream or move at all.

Tooth sped towards her leaving me to save Bunnymund.

I dove at him as fast as I could and managed to grab onto his paw but he was too heavy. His weight was dragging me down along with him. Fortunately North was able to catch us with the sleigh. Tooth sat next to us carrying May in her arms. She was unconscious. I saw that she was holding a screwdriver with gold liquid at the tip. Then I looked at her bare hand and saw that it was dripping with glowing gold blood.

How was that possible? She was a spirit she couldn't get wounded that way, neither of us could (I was pretty sure that she was a ghost now). Tooth tore the hem of May's already tattered pants. She tied it around her palm and tightened it. Tooth tried to look strong for us, keeping her lips in a straight, tight line and hiding any signs of sorrow or defeat but her sparkling eyes betrayed her. She was holding back tears.

A sense of hopelessness washed over me as I looked back at Tooth's palace, it looked so peaceful in the sunset but I knew for a fact that inside were our zombified friends, drooling and lifeless wanting nothing more than to shred us to pieces, now they had Baby Tooth too. And as I watched the sand fall down to earth I remembered Sandman, his smile and dreams, what had Pitch done with him? I stared at the palace until it disappeared behind the swirling portal.


	6. I Learn Not to Mess with the Fairy Q

6. I Learn Not to Mess with the Fairy Queen

The globe looked exactly the same as it had earlier, there weren't any missing lights nope not even a flicker.

I stood there staring at it feeling confused at how normal it looked, as if Pitch had never crawled out of his hole, as if Sandy was with us and everything was okay. What was Pitch up to? He obviously didn't attack Tooth's palace for _nothing. _And Sandy couldn't have just disappeared Pitch must have had something to do with his disappearance but _what?_

My thoughts were interrupted by a scream. Making me jump and turn around to face its source.

"She has no pulse!" Tooth yelled in panic, her head feathers sticking up.

"Um, Tooth I don't think that she had a pulse when she got here. I think you've forgotten that some of us haven't had a pulse in 300 years." I said

Quick as lightning she grabbed my wrist (giving me a mini-heart attack) and placed two fingers on my artery then on my neck. "Oh sorry, just checking," she said holding up her hands and backing away.

I caught a glimpse of May. She had been dumped on a table, supposedly to keep the elves away, but I could see some sneaking towards her arm that was hanging off the edge.

I'm guessing that it was the one that Tooth checked for a pulse.

"What is this?" North muttered, wearing the same confused expression I had earlier.

"They still, believe in us." Tooth said unable to believe what she was seeing.

"This is very unlike Pitch." North said

"He must be using different tactic."

"Are you telling me that possessing Tooth's fairies, taking her palace and maybe even killing Sandman all while going through the trouble of keeping kids believing in us is all part of his plan? If it's not about being believed in or stopping people from believing in us what does he want?!" I asked unable to keep the anger from my voice.

Trying to find out what Pitch was up to was as frustrating as trying to solve a complex math problem.

"You never know with Pitch, Jack, he is crazy. First he wanted to destroy all ze stars and turn all children into fearlings, then he wanted Manny to be 'darkling prince' then changed his mind and wanted Nightlight to be prince instead then decided that Katherine would be a better child. Centuries later he decide that he wanted children to believe in him. Now it is something else." North said

"I honestly don't think that he knows what he really wants." Tooth said and surprisingly I heard a hint of pity in her voice despite the fact that Pitch had taken everything from her just minutes ago. There was a moment of silence before I finally said

" So let's think, he possessed your fairies and took your palace with all the teeth in it. He knows where Sandman is, wants to destroy everything we stand for 'the same way we did with him' and keeps the children believing. Maybe he wants to kill us slowly or something?"

Suddenly I remembered another thing he had said earlier _…someone else has already destroyed the one thing you love so much _he had directed the sentence to me alone, his eyes had been looking straight into mine as he said it. Remembering this sent shivers down my spine as I thought of everything that I 'loved so much' but nothing came.

Bunnymund snickered from his corner; he had been so silent that I forgot that he was with us.

"Isn't it obvious, he said it himself he wants to destroy 'everything we stand for'."

"Yes we know Bunny but how?" North asked

"It's simple he just wants to give people nightmares, attack us, and just ruin everything in general. But however he's going to do it we should get out there right now and stop him."

"But Bunny I can tell that whatever he's up to it's worse now, I could see it in his eyes. I think that whatever happened last time made him more evil somehow. We need to know what we're up against." Tooth reasoned, so I wasn't the only one who noticed it.

"Yeah slow down Cottontail you just escaped plummeting to your death a few minutes ago." I said

Bunnymund groaned,

"We're up against Pitch, there that's a good enough explanation isn't it? Now come on, he's probably given a hundred kids nightmares by now."

"Why are you suddenly so excited Bunny?" Tooth asked suspiciously.

That was a weird question to ask; as far as I knew that was pretty typical of Bunny, then again he had been silently standing against the wall since we got here and he seemed to have recovered from the fall really quickly despite his fear of heights. A strange silence came over the room, why did that weird question affect Bunny so much? Before we had the chance to say anything else a scream broke the silence.

"Sandman!" May yelled, she sat up abruptly throwing off some elves that had been making faces at her goggles and stuffing her foot into a shoe. We all rushed to her side at the mention of his name.

"He's got him," she said in a calmer voice

"Where?" we asked

"I don't know where exactly but he's _with_ him, with Pitch. I felt it when I touched the sand." She slammed her fist on the table "I was _so_ close to reaching him. But at least we now we know what he's up to."

"Well, what is it then?" Bunny asked

"He wants you to be feared like him, and he's gonna use nightmares and Tooth's fairies to do it."

"Di immortales," Tooth breathed, her feathers sticking on end.

"So that is how he will do it." North said

"He will make children fear us so that parents will tell them that we do not exist and children will stop believing."

"And they might even attack if they see us" Bunny said

"But what about the kids that already know us? What about Jamie and his friends? They can't be afraid of us, they've already seen us in action and even fought with us. If the fairies attack they'd know what's up." I said

"You really have no idea how much kids can change do ya." May said kicking off the shoe and standing up, she seemed a little more cranky than usual.

"Or what Pitch can do, oh I forgot you've only fought him once." She said untying her bandage.

"Well you've obviously never seen the kids in action either."

"And you don't know anything about fearlings or fought them before. I heard what happened with you on the western front eight years ago and I can tell you that fearlings are something that can't be defeated with just a touch. You wanna know why? Because they used to be-"

"Let's not go there." Tooth cut her off

"Besides it's not just fearlings that we're facing now, there's something else that he's using that you don't know much about yet May."

"Which is why I think that we need to ask Jamie and his friends for help."

Only after I said it did I realize how wrong it sounded.

"Yes, we should." Bunny agreed

"No we shouldn't." Tooth said firmly

"Don't get me wrong I believe that children can help us in a way but not in this fight, not with the fearlings involved." Tooth said

I've never seen her like this; it was like she was a whole different person. She was so serious, her voice didn't have its usual loving tone since May mentioned the fearlings and her face looked as hard as a warrior's. North looked her up and down obviously noticing the change. He snapped his fingers.

"Phil! Poluchit' mechi!"North ordered

"What did he say?" May asked

"He asked for his swords." Tooth replied

Soon the yeti came back holding a long rectangular case. North chuckled "Not _my _swords, Toothiana, _yours_," Tooth's eyes widened as North opened it "I think it is time you use dis again."

He said throwing her a long, curved, Asian sword and to my surprise she caught it firmly by its golden hilt.

"We are facing Pitch at his worst so you should show your worst as well." He said tossing her another sword that was shorter and broader than the first one.

"You don't seriously think that I'm going to stab my own fairies." Tooth said dropping her swords as if they had turned into snakes.

"It is not for fairies, it is for Pitch. You need to remind him of who he is dealing with. Remind him that he is dealing with ze daughter of Rashmi, a sister of flight and Haroom ze kindhearted slave who was willing to die for the innocent, to die for _you_. Remind Pitch that he is dealing with the Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies and that your fairies are not his to command."

"Wow," I sighed, I never knew that Tooth was a daughter of a sister of flight, I don't know what that is but it sounds pretty cool. Then with the grace of a warrior Tooth picked up the swords wearing the expression of a brave and mighty (and angry) queen.

Suddenly out of nowhere North swung at Tooth with his own swords. I honestly thought that she would fly off but instead she blocked it and violently twist his swords making one fall to the floor, smacked the other one away and point her other sword at his throat leaving him gaping at her.

"Pitch better look out." May muttered to herself grinning. Bunny looked amused by her actions, I noticed that his smile had a strange twist to it.

"Hehe sorry, that was foolish, I guess I'm a little out of practice," she said sheepishly, lowering her sword.

"Out of practice?" North grabbed her shoulders "That was otlichnyy! Pitch will have no chance now!" he exclaimed proudly.

"But what about my fairies? What will we do if they attack us or the children? North I wouldn't be able to bring myself to hurt them." Tooth said looking downhearted.

I looked around wondering the same thing then my eyes fell on May's bare hand.

"What about that thing May did earlier. When she turned the nightmare sand to dream sand. Maybe she can do the same thing with your fairies! We can gather as much as we can and let May bleed on them." I suggested

"But Jack maybe she's still recovering from the incident awhile ago. It must have tired her out, she might not be able to do it again. And if she can it might hurt her." Tooth said returning to her motherly self.

"Don't worry Tooth I can do it," May said grabbing her glove from one of the elves that was wearing it over his head. "I don't think that I'll get hurt," she continued, slipping on her glove.

"Are you sure?" Tooth asked

"No but I'd rather get hurt than let Pitch keep them,"

"Do you think you can still fight? You cannot bleed every time there is nightmare." North said

"Yeah I can still fight," she said reaching for her backpack then a look of embarrassment appeared on her face. "Uh, do you mind lending me a weapon?" she asked sheepishly.

"You can use," North looked around and picked up a knife from a nearby table "this." He said handing it to her.

"Can it kill a fearling?" she asked.

"Do not worry I put some meteorite in all knives here so that when Pitch comes we will always be ready."

He replied, handing it to her.

"Thanks," she said with a grateful smile and finally took the blade.

"So here's the plan," Tooth began "we collect the teeth along with my fairies then bring them back here, and don't forget to leave the gifts this time!" she said as she handed out red bags.

"Yes your most royal highness." I said teasingly when she handed one to me. I caught a glimpse of her cheeks turning pink before looking away.

"I think that we should go in pairs," Bunny piped up form his corner making us all turn to his direction. "You know, to stay safe. Tooth can go with North and Jack you can stay with May."

"What?!" we yelled

"Why do we even need to go in pairs? We'll all just be in the same area." May said

"Besides who'll be going with you? Don't think that you can takes those nightmares alone." I said

"Jack is right Aster, none of us can go alone, all of us will just try to stick together, now enough chitchat it is time to collect teeth!" North said heading towards the elevator with Tooth zipping behind. I grinned gripping my staff and went after them. As I left I heard May whisper

"Bunny are you sure you're okay?'


	7. I Develop a Phobia of Coins

7. I Develop a Phobia of Coins

The night was dark and cloudy, not a single moonbeam or starlight penetrated the atmosphere.

It makes me feel like those guys in horror movies who hear a strange sound and went off to check out what it was. Those parts never end well.

"Scared already Jake?" May smirked as she flew next to me.

"No, why are _you_ scared _Fay_? No need to be ashamed of it."

"Oh yeah I'm shivering with fear. I've only faced a hundred thousand of those fearlings I couldn't possibly handle a couple of them tonight much less a nightmare."

"Aw don't be scared we'll protect you." I said with a tone I'd use on a baby.

She laughed mockingly. "You sure it's _me_ who needs protecting snowflake?"

She scoffed "Just try not to scream too loudly on your first encounter with those darklings."

Before I could give a witty comeback she pulled the chain and let herself fall until she caught a pole then swung into a window faster than I could say 'shut up'.

I hated how she acted like she was so much better than me all the time.

It wasn't like she's ever faced Pitch. It's not like she'd survive being alone the way _I_ did. _She_ wasn't the one who spent three hundred years all alone with no one to reach out to. She always had her sisters and even Bunnymund with her, I had to spend three hundred years watching everyone come and go without taking as much as a glance at me.

_No don't think like that me, it's all over now you're not alone anymore just move on _I thought to myself

_and the others might start thinking that you're jealous or something which you're NOT_. Even if those years were over I still couldn't help but feel the loneliness bounce back yo me every time I'm alone. I'd start worrying that it was all just a dream and it really pained me to restrain myself from visiting Jamie when it wasn't winter just to see that it _was_ real. Being apart from Jamie had always caused me anxiety I mean what if he stopped...believing in me?

I swallowed and decided to just get to work and flew into an open window.

My heart suddenly jumped to my throat because I was _not_ prepared for what I saw.

Hovering over the child's head was an image of me made out of black sand chasing a smaller figure that must have been this kid.

She was actually having a nightmare of _me_.

The nightmare must have sensed my presence because it looked right at me and smirked exactly the same way I would if I had joined Pitch. I never knew how freaky it was to see someone have a nightmare of me. I hid my shock and readied my staff.

"Leave her alone!"

I blasted it with blood freezing ice but before my spell could hit it, the nightmare curled around itself and shot past me.

Leaving me with the child and a now frozen picture frame.

Her teeth were clenched, her eyes moved frantically under her eyelids and her breath was quick. She whimpered and clutched her blanket tight as her legs was still having the nightmare.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

I sighed feeling helpless. M_ight as well take what I came here for._ I reached under her pillow for her tooth and pulled out my hand.

Nothing.

_No, they cant have already taken it. _I felt around the pillow some more until my fingers felt something cold and hard making my heart flutter with hope.

I took it out to examine it. It was a coin that looked exactly like the ones Tooth had given us in advance to make sure that we didn't forget to leave gifts.

Yet something about this coin felt _wrong. _My smile disappeared as I turned it around my fingers.

It felt so _hypnotic_ for some reason I couldn't take my eyes off it, the longer I stared at the coin the more sinister it looked.

Suddenly the room seemed to melt around me.

The bed, roof, floor, walls and even the coin right infront of my face disappeared. And I found myself surrounded by a forest, standing on ice that reflected the sunlight.

_What's happening?_

Suddenly standing right infront of me was someone who I thought I'd never see again.

Right in front of me was my sister looking exactly like the last time I saw her.

"Jack, I'm scared," she said looking with horror at the ice cracking under her skates.

"Shh it's okay, it's okay. I learned how to get out of thin ice years ago. This time we'll both make it!" I tried to say, but my mouth didn't move. I felt frozen to where I was standing like a statue. I couldn't move, much less tell her how to get out of the lake safely.

_But I need to help her._ I tried to move again willing myself to open my mouth to speak. Nothing. Then I tried with all my might to move my fingers, and in desperation I tried to flail my limbs. I didn't care anymore! I _had_ to help her! But I still couldn't move or even feel myself.

"Jack…" she said then the start started to crack more as she looked up at me. I could see the fear, desperation and tears in her eyes. She began to scream,

"Help me! Please! Please Jack! Help-!"

My heart skipped a beat and time slowed down as the ice gave way beneath her. I watched as I watched my sister, my sweet innocent little sister who I would die a thousand deaths for, fall screaming into the lake's cruel, freezing, dark water. And this time I couldn't save her.

"NOOOOOOO!" I screamed and dropped the coin. Suddenly I was back in the room. It had all been a bad dream. "Are you okay?" a voice asked. I turned around to see that it was Toothiana, hovering outside the window. I hastily wiped away a tear and swallowed back a sob.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The coin's cursed it gives you hallucinations, we need to destroy them." I said trying to keep my voice from cracking, I could still see the ice breaking and her screams rang in my head, it had all felt so _real_. I glared at the innocent-looking coin lying at the floor.

"I know, I came here to warn you," she began and her eyes followed my gaze to the round object. "But it looks like I'm too late," she said picking up the cursed coin and placing a normal one under the pillow. I studied her face curiously, she wasn't smiling like she usually did. She looked worse than the last time we came to collect teeth together.

"What did you see when you touched the coin?" I asked, figuring that that must've been why she looked so depressed.

"My parents," she simply replied looking down at the floor, her face a mix of rage and sorrow.

"I think we should get going before they steal anymore teeth," she said, avoiding my gaze. Then without another word she flew away, making it clear that she didn't want to talk about it. I took one last look at the child twisting and turning in her sleep before I finally left.

The rest of the houses were pretty much the same as the last one, except I didn't see any more nightmares. But the kids were still whimpering and twitching and some had even fallen to the floor. The teeth were missing and there were still those stupid coins under their pillows. It took all my willpower not to throw them out the window, which would put passerbys in danger if they found one and thought that it was just some harmless, old coin then the next thing they know they'll find themselves being dragged to a mental hospital.

I continued to replace the cursed coins with normal ones and on my way to the next window I'd hunt for the nightmares but there were still no sign of them anywhere.

Soon I noticed that all the children's cheeks had fresh cuts on them as if needles had scratched them. I realized that the fairies had left them there as some sick sign that they had been there. I started leaving a thin layer of frost over their wounds so that it would at least stop hurting.

It made anger and hatred boil in my chest, the children were already hurt enough with their precious memories getting stolen and terrible nightmares plaguing their dreams but _nooo_ that wasn't enough for the boogeyman, he still had to physically hurt them too.

I decided that the next time I saw Pitch I'd make sure that all the wounds he'd given these children would appear on his face too.

* * *

A couple of hours later I was convinced that that was all we were going to face tonight, scratched cheeks and scary coins. It definitely wasn't a picnic but I couldn't imagine anything worse happening.

Then a shrill scream coming from an isolated big, leather tent in the middle of the dessert proved just how wrong I was.

The scream didn't sound like Tooth, May or Bunny (I'd bet he screams like that).

It sounded like a _child's _scream and that's when I knew that our horror train had just began to roll.

I immediately rushed to the yurt steeling up my nerves, whatever was in there _definitely_ isn't going to be pretty.

I burst into the yurt's only room where colorful cloths hung at the walls and three mats that served as beds lay on the floor.

Inside was a scene that made me feel like I was in a nightmare again only it was something that I could have never imagined or wake up from.

In the middle of the room was a child floating midair screaming and crying, a writhing dark mass coiling around him like an anaconda about to eat its prey. His parents were on their beds, unable to wake up form their own nightmares. I stood there paralyzed, my mouth gaped open and I wasn't even sure whether or not I was screaming or if this was even real

anymore. The fearling seemed to be laughing at me, taunting me to make a move knowing that I was going to fail.

I forced my mouth closed and pointed my staff at it threateningly making it laugh even louder as if it were the most pathetic attempt it had ever seen. I realized that I couldn't freeze it, that would only trap the boy with the fearling.

The child's scream was becoming hoarse and he started to turn unnaturally pale, even paler than me, and slowly his skin seemed to turn into gray.

A sense of desperation hit me like lightning, I had to save this kid no matter what the cost. With a battle cry I charged at it, my staff began to glow blue and the air turned colder.

Suddenly I heard another battle cry next to me and a red figure ran past me. Something silver slashed across the fearling's body as the red thing got to it.

And for a fraction of a second it looked _afraid, _which scared me because it looked exactly like a frightened child silently begging for help. Then it vanished into thin air.

Right below where the fearling once was crouched a familiar figure holding the child in his arms. He whispered something to him that sounded like "I believe, I believe, I believe." The kid stopped crying and his eyes closed, his face once full of fear turned into a peaceful expression. North wiped away his tears and placed him on his bed. He turned to me and said

"Jack are you okay?"

I tried to reply but found that my throat hurt a bit.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I finally managed to reply.

Two more figures shot in from the window. Tooth with her swords at the ready and May gripping her knife, both of them frantically looking around.

"What's wrong? What happened? Was Pitch here?" Tooth gushed.

I took a deep breath "No, it was just a fearling. It's okay it's gone now."

May facepalmed herself,

"Dude, _what _did I just tell you?"

I resisted the urge to whack her on the head with my staff. Instead I forced in my anger and tapped my finger on my chin as if I was trying to remember.

"Oh yeah I forgot, you told me that you scared. Well there's no need to worry anymore we've already taken care of that fearing."

She scoffed "Yeah I can see that you really helped with all that screaming-"

"I wasn't screaming!"

"Oh and I suppose you were just singing in a really high pitched voice,"

"Yeah I was going to kill it with the power of music." I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. My anger slowly getting the best of me.

"Is that seriously what you think someone would do in this situation?"

"Well if that someone is you then I wouldn't be too surprised, besides I guess it could work for someone with your voice," she smirked

"And waving a glowing stick at a darkling isn't exactly the best solution either,"

"I think you've forgotten how powerful a staff can be seeing that you lost yours!"

I could see I hit a nerve as she scowled and took a threatening step towards me.

"Enough!" North ordered, shoving us apart.

"The longer you argue the more teeth get stolen and the more children get turned! We should be fighting _Pitch_ not eachother so stop arguing!"

We immediately shut up and Tooth put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

"Let's just get going, I can stay with Jack if he needs help with the fearlings,"

"No it's okay I can handle it," I said

"You sure about that?" May asked mockingly

I was about to retort when North shot us a look that silenced us both.

"Come on then let's go," North said exiting the yurt.

For the rest of the night we started with the rural areas where we were needed the most because it was darker and a more likely place for fearlings to visit. I faced a few more of them but I handled it better, though it still scared me.

As we reached the countries with earlier time zones things got better, we were finally able to get teeth, capture a couple of fairies, the fearlings seemed to have gone and there weren't any signs of people having nightmares.

Soon there weren't any signs of Pitch at all; the only thing we had to worry about now was making sure that we didn't wake up any of the kids.

I released a sigh of relief as I exited the hundredth house I've been in that didn't have a nightmare or fairy in it and still had the tooth under the pillow.

But then the relief immediately disappeared when I saw Tooth looking worried. I approached here and asked, "What's wrong?"

"The night seems to be holding its breath like something bad is going to happen. I haven't seen a nightmare or fearling in the last few hours, something's wrong."

I chuckled "With Pitch back something bad is _definitely_ gonna happen but don't worry we'll just kick him back into his creepy dark hole like last time and make sure he stays there."

"That's not all, we haven't seen Bunny since we left the pole."

I stopped smiling and thought about it, well yeah Bunny wasn't with us at the yurt but I think I remembered seeing him stick up his cotton tail every once in awhile.

"Don't worry he's probably digging a tunnel somewhere or something. You know how he is, always thinking that he can take on everything by himself."

She smiled "You're right, he's probably just here somewhere." She looked like she was going to turn and leave but she held my shoulders alittle longer.

"You know, you shouldn't let them get to you too much. Bunny and that girl, you're not who they think you are. I honestly think that you were braver than most facing that fearling. Just try to be more careful," with that she zipped into the nearest window. And I got back to work.

I flew into a room and looked around, the lampshade at the bedside was on, its light repelling darklings that might have come. Her cheek had no scratch and she was even smiling as if she were having a good dream, which made me feel like Sandy were here. I got the tooth and started walking towards the window.

Suddenly I saw May slam face first against the wall near the window and fell into the dark alley below with an audible crash.

Little did I know that this was the start of a chain of unfortunate events.

* * *

_Chapter 8 is currently being typed..._


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